Wild Life in the 'Hood

I've been seeing lots of wild life recently in the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch and heard a tap tap tapping at the door. I looked up and saw:

Yes, that is a roadrunner sitting on the ledge of the window above my door. I, obviously, grabbed my camera took that picture and then went outside after she jumped down and got another picture of her in my yard:

We have also been seeing an over abundance of rabbits around...I haven't bothered to get any pictures of them, although they do seem to enjoy teasing poor Leo as they will sit in the backyard while he is trapped in the house.

Today, as I was driving out of the neighborhood, I turned the corner and saw this strange mass in the middle of the street. The mass then started to move and as I got closer it made its way to the curb:

Here is another shot of the momma duck with her babies following behind, doing as they are told.

Gotta love Mother Nature....

Quilts Challenge - Carnival

So, I finished the second challenge from Art Quilts Around the World. This time the challenge word was "Carnival". When I first thought about 'carnival', I thought of Carnival in Rio or Venice or even Mardi Gras. I had my first thought for a design and then decided that I needed to do a little more thinking. So, I did an image search for Carnival and found a number of different pictures of masks and parades that I thought I would try and use. Here are some of the examples:

I then started thinking about other types of carnivals and came onto traveling carnivals, carnies, and carnival games:

So, carnival games led me to think about the movie Big and the traveling carnival that the family went to at the beginning of the movie and thought that I would do a Zoltar quilt...but then thought about other freaks and geeks associated with carnivals:

But, then I ended up just going back to my original thought... A wilted feather in a puddle of oil at the end of the carnival parade....


Full Quilt with Mardi Gras bead sewn into the border.



Close up of the feather and the quilting

What I learned from this challenge is that I really want to work more on my quilting. I've done long arm quilting in the past on much larger pieces and that was so much easier than working on a smaller piece and controlling it all. The other thing I have learned is that I'm not a big fan of doing hand work. I had to hand sew the beads around the edge and I do not have the hand-eye coordination to thread a needle.

iPhone...

Well, I broke down today and acquired a new iPhone today. It is my first iPhone and I got it to replace my Android, which was having some age issues. I decided to go ahead and get it now, before my trip, so that I could use it to take panoramic pictures while on Hawaii.

And, I'm having some fun learning how it all works.

Sad thing, while I was waiting for the tech to sync my contacts, I started looking at the iPad minis....and now I'm having thoughts that I should not be having.....

No More Television

Well, I've done it.

I've cancelled my television and DVR (an my home phone, for that matter).

So, that doesn't mean I'm going to turn my television into a plant stand or anything, I'm just attempting to step back and not be quite such a slave to it. As of April 1, I am switching to an antenna on both of my televisions so that I will be able to still catch the news and the weather, but otherwise, there will be limited television being watched in Casa ABBA. I have plans to get a HuluPlus account so that I can stream shows when I want to watch something, so never fear that I will be completely out of the loop.

I'm doing this for a couple of different reasons.

1. I'm trying to save some money and surprisingly cutting cable and DVR out of my life is going to save me enough to make a dent in the pocketbook.
2. I've become addicted to watching it. I will come home in the evening and immediately turn it on, even if there is NOTHING on that I want to watch. I will also turn it on first thing on Saturday and Sunday morning/afternoon/evening and get sucked into a marathon of some strange show that I really have no interest in, yet can't seem to tear myself away from.

I'm hoping that in making this change, I'll spend more time doing things that are good for my body and soul, like exercising, quilting, drawing, and reading.

I'm actually looking forward to the experiment. A number of years ago I tried something similar and put my television into a closet, where it stayed for about 6 months and if I remember correctly, I read a lot during that period. I admit that this really is an experiment and I may find myself at a complete loss a week from now and HAVE to have it turned back on. If that is the case, so be it, but for now....I'm excited to see how this all works out.